Mandeep Ballagan

Professor Manuela-Bueno
C&T 491
26 May 2016
Reflection on Choi

EFL testing is very prominent in Korea and is used to determine the future of the students
who take it. Many stakeholders such as teachers, students, and parents dislike EFL testing and
teaching because of all the different washback effects. EFL tests are extremely high stakes tests
and are arguably the most important exams that a student takes to determine their future. The
reason why it is so important is because students have to take that exam and score high on it to
get admitted into university, and university admission determines the social status and standing
of students. Essentially, which university a student gets into is critical to that students future
success.
Testing is also very important in Korea because Korea relies on international business for
economic growth and English is needed to communicate effectively with businesses all over the
entire world. There is also a sociocultural context behind testing. Testing in Korea dates all the
way back to the dynasty, and high ranking government officials get their positon through testing.
This defends and backs up the philosophy that people can move up social classes and climb up
the social ladder through their own hard work and efforts; the more education a person gets, the
higher scores they obtain on high stakes exams, and admission into top universities all contribute
to success for a person. There is an equal opportunity to climb up the social ladder.
However, there are also a lot of drawbacks and washback effects of testing. The English
teachers teach to the EFL exams and the exams, like the KSAT, do not have speaking/writing

sections so there is very little teaching of speaking and writing in the classroom which leads to a
lack of English communication skills and English proficiency skills. Students also cram for the
exams which directly violates the National Curriculum prescribed by Ministry of Education.
Because these exams are so important to get into top universities, top jobs in leading Korean
corporations, and other government positions many test takers use clever test taking strategies to
obtain high scores. Some of the students who get the highest EFL scores have low
communicative English skills and overall English efficiency. The EFL exams are not an accurate
representation of overall communication skills. Another drawback is that there are multiple types
of EFL tests and there is a large variation in the level of difficulty between all the exams and
there is also no common criteria or set standards. Because these students spend so much time
studying for these high stakes exams and are pressured and stressed into getting high scores there
is a very low level of intrinsic motivation to actually learn English. Many students are learning
English only to acquire a high score on the EFL tests, not so they can actually speak well in
English and communicate efficiently in English. Lastly, there is a large amount of financial
burden for students and parents because many students have to keep retaking it until they get a
score that meets the graduation or employment requirements.
So far in Kwangha I have noticed that there are in fact a lot of exams that the students are
taking and the third graders that I have spoken to are studying for the exams right now. They all
also said that they want to get into top universities so they have to get a high score so that makes
me think that they are trying extra hard to learn and study English so that they can get into those
universities instead of learning English out of genuine interest. Another thing that I have noticed,
especially in the third graders, is that they are going to cram schools after regular school is over

to prepare for these exams which demonstrates just how important these exams are to future
success.